Not good to look at? Every day we see many windows, each of which hides a small world. What's going on in it? How do the occupants behave? What are they hiding? Have you ever fantasized about this? And the French director François Ozon in his film “In the House” looked into one of the houses of an ordinary French family through the eyes of an average, not outstanding (and it only seems so at first glance) student named Claude and his teacher, a failed writer, Germain.
Claude is a student from the last desk, no one sees him, but he can watch everyone, notice the smallest details. He is rubbed into the trust of his classmate Rafa, under the pretext of additional classes in mathematics, finds himself entering the house of a “normal family”. This intrusion is carefully thought out, because Claude has been imagining how to enter this house for a year. His wish is being fulfilled. The family receives comrade Rafa very warmly, Rafa Jr. himself does not have friendly feelings towards his classmate. Claude systematically observes the family, writes essays of an ironic, cynical and mocking nature, which he shows his teacher, who, in turn, encourages such writing, well, who ever wanted to be a voyeur? And here’s what is interesting: Germain, as we see at the beginning of the film, despises popular culture and everything that relates to it, divides students into extraordinary and “pizza-hamburger-TV”, and did he go far from untalented schoolchildren, if he is curious to spy on someone else’s family?
Then the events are famously twisted, mixed and developed not as expected, the situation is out of control. Claude now has to find the finale for his novel (and again, one cannot fail to mention the teacher: he literally forces his talented student to continue writing, he is eager to find out what is happening there, inside the house) and he can not be stopped.
I do not see the point of retelling the final scenes, otherwise all the “salt” of the picture will dissolve, it is better to watch yourself if you are interested in psychological thrillers with an unexpected outcome.
I'll just add one thing: Claude in this drama is just the most normal (he is rather a victim, symbolizing the rising generation with a still immature mind), the monster here is a completely different person (in this regard, recalls the Clockwork Orange, where society makes teenagers monsters, pushing them to a variety of crimes).
8 out of 10
Original